WHOOPING CRANE. 



25 



exception of the bill and legs being- red ; like tbose of 

 the present, the year old birds are said also to be tawny. 



It is highly probable that the species described by 

 naturalists as the brown crane (ardea Canadensis,} is 

 nothing more than the young of the whooping crane, 

 their descriptions exactly corresponding with the latter. 

 In a flock of six or eight, three or four are usually of 

 that tawny or reddish brown tint on the back, scapulars, 

 and wing-coverts ; but are evidently yearlings of the 

 whooping crane, and differ in nothing but in that and 

 size from the others. They are generally five or six 

 inches shorter, and the primaries are of a brownish 

 cast. 



The whooping crane is four feet six inches in length, 

 from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and, 

 when standing erect, measures nearly five feet ; the bill 

 is six inches long, and an inch and a half in thickness, 

 straight, extremely sharp, and of a yellowish brown 

 colour; the irides are yellow; the forehead, whole 

 crown, and cheeks, are covered with a warty skin, 

 thinly interspersed with black hairs ; these become 

 more thickly set towards the base of the bill; the hind- 

 head is of an ash colour ; the rest of the plumage, pure 

 white, the primaries excepted, which are black ; from 

 the root of each wing rise numerous large flowing 

 feathers projecting over the tail and tips of the wings ; 

 the uppermost of these are broad, drooping, and pointed 

 at the extremities, some of them are also loosely 

 webbed, their silky fibres curling inwards, like those of 

 the ostrich. They seem to occupy the place of the 

 tertials. The legs and naked part of the thighs are 

 black, very thick and strong ; the hind toe seems rarely 

 or never to reach the hard ground, though it may 

 probably assist in preventing the bird from sinking too 

 deep in the mire. 



